The present invention is generally related to amusement games such as arcade type games, and more particularly to a prize distribution system for such games that can deliver to a player a large number of tickets or a prize in a safe and reliable manner.
Amusement games of chance and skill are well known in the art. The present inventor has a plethora of patents on such games, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,079,596, 8,070,167, 7,857,318, 7,857,316, 7,559,552, 7,192,342, 7,168,702, 6,991,230, 6,796,487, 6,770,001, 6,732,926, 6,626,096, 6,234,487, 6,161,743, 6,135,335, 5,967,892, and many others. The contents of these patents are incorporated fully herein by reference.
A great many of these games and many other arcade games work on a reward principle, where the players pay for the opportunity to win prizes, either by winning redemption tickets that can be converted into prizes, or by winning the prizes themselves. As competition for the player's attention and money have increased, the need for higher end prizes has continued to grow in the business. Games now feature prizes such as MP3 players, cameras, radios, cellular telephones, and the like. However, to protect the security of such games and prevent theft, these prizes must typically be kept behind a locked counter, where a clerk has access and can distribute the prize once verification has been established. Alternatively, certain games can feature a “Mega” reward that can include thousands of redemption tickets that can be used to trade for a high end prize such as those described above. The problem is that these games are not well equipped to distribute a thousand or more tickets in a convenient manner, and thus either require a clerk be available to distribute the tickets or the player must wait for the game to vend a thousand tickets in small units. This is a drawback of the games currently in arcades and the like that the present invention is intended to remedy.